Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 14:45:14 -0700 (PDT)
The other Earth People are subterranean humanoids, of which Grimlocks are probably the most pure example. The Halflings represent the Earth People who chose to master the surface and who chose agriculture as a way to tame the Wild. Unlike the Shining Court, the Surface Earth People have broken the ties with their darker brothers and surface-worlders will consider Halflings to be the only Earth People.
Halfling is a derogatory Sea People name for the Earth People (who call themselves Runa which means "Earth People" and their empire Marka ("The Dominion")). The are far too polite and sophisticated to express their displeasure with this title to the Sea People openly, and the Sea People are too dense (and untrained in Innuendo) to realize that the Earth People consider that tag about as offensive as "Gook", "Jap" or "Chink". Polite is Runa, Markan or even Earth People in your language.
In this discussion I'll use "Halfling" because we're based in a Sea People district and because PhB uses Halfling.
As with all racial discussions, PC's may violate the terms here entirely but the farther you deviate from the norm, the more likely there is to be severe in-game social consequences. Or to put it another way, a Lawful Good Red Dragon will have a hard time convincing anyone that he's not evil. Similar strictures apply here.
Halfling society is very organized, with compulsory aptitude testing and a smattering of education for just about everyone.
Most Heros are taught in schools, and to get into a school you have to pass an examination. Now the wealthy and those in power are more likely to have their children pass such an examination, having a chance to coach them and give training. But talented commoners of humble/poor birth make up more Halfling Heroes than in most other races.
All halflings are given rudimentary education and military training, which consists mostly of teaching them how to ambush invaders with darts from concealment, acting as skirmishers, while the Heroes do the heavy lifting. A militia band will usually be lead by an Aristocrat or Rogue, and the typical armament is darts. This training is why Halflings are all moderately skilled at hiding and thrown weapons, but these traits are not highly valued among halfling Heroes.
Halflings consider themselves cosmopolitan and value social skills highly, so Rogue levels tend to apply their skill points to Appraise, Sense Motive, Diplomacy, Bluff, Gather Information and to a lesser extent Intimidate.
A Halfling Hero is expected to work well with authorities, work well with the team and to be always gracious and civilized. Of all the races a Halfling Hero is most likely to be on a mission for his religion or his government and is most likely to let his superiors take care of his fame and reputation.
A decent parallel is the British Wooden Ships navy, where a Captain had huge independence and authority, bound only by general orders much of the time, but his advancement and his status depended on a mix of deeds and more importantly how those deeds were reported and publicised. If you took a Frigate with a Sloop but it wasn't reported to the Admiralty and published in the Gazette until after you lost that sloop in a later action, you may never get full credit for your success. Likewise if you have made enemies in authority your accomplishments will never result in the promotion and respect that they deserve, except possibly on the grapevine. Finally you are responsible to the higher authority for your actions, and misbehavior can result in disgrace, expulsion from your Service and possibly even death.
Gnomes Brag openly, Goblins Brag secretly, Dwarves name-drop after doing highly visible deeds. Halflings write reports to superiors, who then publish journals of their actions to interested parties.
A Halfling Hero is also one of the best suited to do long term covert missions, deferring his glory until his retirement, except among the tight cell of his organization and perhaps that of his counterparts. Halflings are renowned as spies and diplomats among the other races, though they are rarely seen outside their own lands except in trading missions.
This reputation means that a Halfling capable of such things will often disguise himself as a Gnome or Goblin, or even (with appropriate magic) a Dwarf or Sea People Race (usually Elf, as Halflings aren't really strong enough to pass as an Orc).
Oddly for such social creatures Halfling Heroes often operate alone, Halfling Hero Bands are relatively rare...the Heroes are scattered around in governmental posts, positions of authority, trade and diplomatic missions (and spy missions). Hero bands tend to fall into three general categories:
Halfling Hero Bands at high levels typically have 100% evasion in their ranks OR they use elemental protection spells routinely. 2 levels of Rogue are common, both for the social skills and for the evasion skill. However unlike Goblins, who have a similar situation in their Hero teams, The Halfling hero band might put off the second Rogue level for quite a while....maybe in the 9-12 level range instead of the 4-6 level range. Halfling Heroes like to be well developed in their primary attributes before catching up on their social skills.
Culturally, Halfling Barbarians are almost impossible. A Barbarian has no place in Halfling society, and one would have to be almost raised by another race to exist. PC halflings are highly not recommended.
Culturally Bards are rare, but there is a Bard School for those with the talent who are not swept up into one of the other services. The Halfling Bards are normally neutral, chaotic is very rare. They have a status much like actors in the 19th century...everyone goes to the play and might want to sleep with one but One doesn't invite one to your parlor or MARRY one. Bards will typically dispense with Rogue levels, unless they want Evasion...and won't normally try for Evasion until their Bardic powers are well established. Bards who learn elemental protection spells or who are primarily noncombatants won't bother with the Rogue levels. Bards have plenty of access to the important social skills already.
Normally Hearth, Earth and Dominion, in roughly equal numbers, although a disproportionate number of Earth priests are LG, and Dominion have many LN followers, making the overall alighnment of Halflings shade toward the good. Among the subterranean races, the alignment shift is reversed, as survival there requires less cooperation and more domination than agricultural and urban society. The value of getting more powerful clerical spells is understood, so a Halfling Cleric will typically not start with a Rogue level but instead just use Diplomacy to get by until he has either mastered the rank of spells he targeted at the outset (usually level 3, 4 or 5) or until his lack of advancement due to inability to gather information and sense motive prompts him to divert from his religious studies into understanding his social heirarchy. High level halfling clerics almost invariably have two rogue levels, and thus will be a little slower to get the most powerful spells. Halfling followers of other religions tend to be outcasts from the normal Hero Teams, but might show up on an Unauthorized teams. In all cases, Unauthorized Team members are much more willing to put off their Rogue levels until "later" to gain more power now. The strong Dominion influence in Halfling Politics tends to balance the general Altruisitic bent of the race, so the society as a whole should be considered LN.
The InBetween is disturbing to the Halfling Mind, but the value of a Druid in understanding and taming the Wild is highly appreciated. A Halfling Druid takes the oaths very seriously and will attempt to organize Druidic activity toward specific goals. Of all the older races, Druids have a place in Halfling society...just not at the center of it. Druids are expected to be wild and strange, so the usual social expectation of Rogue levels is usually waived. A Druid won't normally operate in urban areas and rarely in farm areas, they'll work on the frontier beyond the "civilized" regions, as scouts, spies, foresters and pickets....protecting the civilized regions from the Wild..but also protecting the Wild from the encroachment of civilization. Druids are not very likely to be on an Unauthorized team, unless that team normally operates far from civilization, but Druid Teams and a Druid member of a multidisciplinary team are both reasonably likely.
Fighter levels will often be used just to give a Rogue a bit more straight up combat power. There is a Fighter Guild however which specializes in straight combat skills, and it is in competition with the Monastaries for the best physical specimens. Halfling Fighters are known for their rash behavior, possibly because those of more contemplative nature tend to become Monks or even Paladins. A Hero Team will always have someone good at fighting, but it is as likely to be a Monk or Ranger as a Fighter. Fighters tend to start out with Rogue as Primary and Fighter as secondary, and tend to get their second Rogue level early, in the level 4-6 range.
Monks appeal to the Halfling mind, with a strict heirarchy and an emphasis on discipline of the mind and body. The extra speed of a monk is also helpful when dealing with the Sea People, and with Evasion built-in Monks typically do not take Rogue levels, and rely on their Diplomacy skill to get along. Hence Monks are seen as unworldly and Naive compared to other Halfling Heros and that is accepted behavior.
Paladins are more commonly Halflings than any other race, partly due to cultural factors. Paladins, like Clerics, get a pass on the social skills for a while but will cease to advance socially and politically unless they eventually get a couple Rogue levels. Typically a Paladin will wait until he has his Mount and his first spells before working on his social skills. "Novice" Paladins are expected to use diplomacy in the meantime to get by, and like Monks and Clerics are considered to be a bit childlike until they grow into their power. Paladins are the only Halflings that typically use a Mount, and they use a War-Goat (use wardog stats but it rams/gores with horns instead of biting and has improved bull rush instead of trip) as a mount until their special mount appears. Paladins will care for their steed as they will for themselves and barding the mount is often a higher priority than armoring the Paladin. Warriors and Fighters may ride mounts of various sorts, usually small ponies and such, but they would almost never fight on one, they would get off and fight. Paladins often run solo, but have little trouble getting the town militia to help out if he needs additional muscle or resources.
Halfling Rangers usually start as rogues primary/ranger secondary and get their second rogue level in the mid-levels, usually before they get their first spells. The Halfling ranger specializes in wilderness situations, tracking, stealth and alertness...he is the only class which values these traits highly, in spite of the Rogue's ability to easily pick up these skills. As such the party Ranger will often be the party Scout. A ranger may well pick up a third Rogue level for more sneak attack, but won't usually go past level 3 to avoid hurting his combat ability. Halfling rangers are often used as spies among less civilized races. Fighters are more common than Rangers, and Rangers have a disproportionate number of nongood members, as many of the better LG candidates end up getting trained as Paladins.
The typical Halfling Hero is not in fact a combat oriented person at all. He is a trader, merchant, spy, diplomat. He may have a smattering of skills in all the other classes, indeed a very high level Rogue may well have training in rudimentary arcane, divine and fighter skills, possibly even more than one type of each. Such a character will have wands and scrolls and funky weapon feats to surprise his enemies, but most of the time he will look and act perfectly harmless.
He is the card-shark with a holdout gun...dangerous if you turn your back, but if cornered he'll be more likely to talk his way out than to muscle his way out. A Hero Team lacking such a character will tend to end up like a typical Shadowrun team...getting crap missions, getting screwed on payment and never knowing what is going on. During the combat portions of the Mission, the other party members will do their best to help this character contribute, setting up flanking points, making sure he has a wand of fireballs or whatever will keep him busy, alive and able to contribute. Halflings on teams with other races are more commonly one of the other types, as this sort of Hero works best in a Halfling organization. One who somehow finds his way outside of Halfing Society likely has a dark secret in his past.
Sorcerers are "trained" in monastaries and are in fact treated almost exactly like monks. There is in fact a subclass that splits levels evenly between monk and sorceror, generally using spells to make up for the lost Monk levels. While a Monk/Sorcerer will typically use the Diplomacy skill in the same way as a pure monk, the pure Sorcerer will be limited to cross-class skills...their naturally high charisma makes them pass reasonably well with other classes until the mid-levels but a sorceror may take a level or two of Rogue around level 9-12 to "unstick" their social skills and allow societal advancement that matches their power. Now in reality sorcery can't be trained like being a monk can, so the "Masters" will reject applicants who don't have the gift of it. There is probably only one Sorcery organization, and one Sorcery-Monk organization, the Talented who do not end in some other class or profession are rare enough that the population won't support more. They do however have a skilled beaurocracy able to ferret out those with Sorcery talent. A Sorcerer from Monastic life will spend most of his skill points on social skills. A "Rogue" sorcerer who did not get trained at the Monastary will either opt-out of the social skills entirely or get his Rogue levels sooner. "Rogue" (in the real sense, not the multiclass sense) sorcerors are the subject of much bad press, are stock villains in plays/stories and are used to scare halfling children into obedience. One would certainly only be found on an Unofficial team.
People who are smarter than they are social often end up as Wizards. Wizards are more highly regarded than Sorcerers as allies due to their spell diversity especially in the area of divinations when combat is not a primary concern.
Of all the Heroes, the Wizard is the only one likely to escape Guild training without the Rogue level and its attendent social skills. Wizards are easily fit into the "Excentric Genius" role. However that said, "most likely" still means most Halfling Wizards do in fact start out with a level of rogue as primary. It is just more that a Hero WITHOUT social graces is most likely to be a Wizard. A wizard doing the Clerical path of putting off the Rogue levels till he gained a certain amount of power is seen as a hopeless nerd, and lab-rat. Such a mage is easy to control via his spell book and spell selection, so it is not seen as dangerous a threat to society as a no-school sorceror. Eventually even the labrat Wizard will probably end up taking his Rogue levels to advance socially....or he may retreat to a tower somewhere, sending in his Guild dues and communicating only through correspondance. Divination and charm/suggestion spells are very popular, and some less scrupulous mages will learn still and silent spell feats to allow casting of these spells in polite society without anyone noticing.
Non-Heroes in Halfling Society fall into several broad categories, distinguished more by their social skills than their precise profession. These skills are so important to survival in society I'm going to talk about them first:
Diplomacy: Without this skill you have no hope of social advancement and may in fact be the victim of persecution and even duels if you are considered weak. The best you can do without this skill is to be considered a barbarian or commoner. Truly expert or dangerous people without this skill may however fit into the "Eccentric Genius" category....might not get invited to parties except as a conversation piece but can't be ignored entirely. Any Hero who expects to be treated as a Hero in Halfling society had better take this skill, and keep it to at least minimal levels for his power. You can do without the others, but without Diplomacy you had better find a patron who considers you a genius and has the social skills to carry it off.
Bluff: Most anyone who is anyone in Halfling Society has at least 5 ranks of Bluff, if only for the Innuendo, Diplomacy and Intimidation benefits. If you wish to deceive anyone you'd better have this skill, as everyone has ranks in Sense Motive and you are likely to be found out eventually, if not immediately.
Sense Motive: As everyone who is anyone has Bluff, you'd better put some ranks into this skill or you will be the victim of lies and confidence games. In Halfling society going without Sense Motive is like in normal society having a wisdom of zero for the purpose of divining the truth of social situations.
Gather Information: This is a touch more optional and is almost worthless outside of the lower classes if you don't also keep up with Innuendo.
Innuendo: Everyone who is anyone has this skill and in polite society it is used constantly. It is also used on official reports and publications which means getting any sense of what is going on in Halfling society is almost impossible without training in this skill and preferably appropriate ranks in it for your power and social level. Without this skill you can also be insulted to your face and have no idea, with catastrophic effects on your social standing. Pretty much if you are communicating with anyone except a commoner or eccentric genius, this communication will fail without the skill, as they will only talk of bland things, hinting at their true agenda, and they will certainly not assume that YOU are coming out and saying what you really mean.
More uses of Innuendo are described as part of Jargon.
Intimidate: Generally mixed with diplomacy, although crude warriors might resort to physical threats. Many Halflings ignore this skill but those who practice it are very, very good at it.
Typical levels, in order of how they are treated.
"Young" = level 1, Blooded = 2, Established =4, Important = 8, Mighty = 12+
Barbarian/Foreigner/Unambitious Commoner - untrained Innuendo, skill -2 to 2 in the various social skills, usually off raw charisma.
Ambitious Commoner - one rank in innuendo, skill 0-2 in everything else after charisma mods.
Typical Eccentric Genius - effective skill 10 in their specialty or about level 4 hero. No social skills to speak of.
Naive Young Hero - Monks, Paladins, Clerics with 4 ranks in diplomacy and none of the other skills.
Young Hero, Beginning Expert or Aristocrat - 4 ranks in diplomacy, bluff, innuendo and sense motive, usually also Gather Information. A high charisma pure sorceror can get by on cross-class skills and charisma.
Naive Blooded Hero - Monks, Paladins, Clerics with 5 ranks of Diplomacy and one rank in Innuendo.
Blooded Hero, Expert, Aristocrat. 5 ranks in all 5 skills, which means Diplomacy and Innuendo are at effective 7 ranks due to skill synergy.
Important Eccentric Genius - effective skill 15 in their speciality, or about a level 8 hero. No social skills to speak of.
Established Naive Hero - about 8 net skill in diplomacy, 1 rank in innuendo
Established Hero, Expert, Aristocrat. 5 ranks in bluff and gather information. effective 8 skill in Diplomacy, Innuendo and Sense Motive. This is about as good as a sorceror can get without mixing in Rogue levels.
Mighty Eccentric Genius - Effective skill 20 in their speciality, or about a level 12 hero. No social skills to speak of
Important Naive hero - 10 net skill in diplomacy, and innuendo is usually at net skill of 5 by this time.
Important Hero, Expert, Aristocrat. Effective 10 skill in Diplomacy, Innuendo and Sense motive, minimum 5 ranks in bluff and gather information.
Mighty Naive Hero - 15+ skill in diplomacy and it is quite common to have all other social skills at least at level 5, if only by charisma enhancers.
Mighty Hero, Expert, Aristocrat. 15 effective skill in all 5 social skills is common, although some who got there with two Rogue levels might have only half that in skills they deem less important, and the very honest might have only the 5 ranks in bluff. Generally though most Mighty people will use magic to fill in the gaps in their social skills, and a powerful Halfing person will often have skill, wisdom or charisma enhancing wonderous items.
Noncombatants will typically spend their feats on skill focus for social skills, bolstering weaknesses in attributes.
Commoners are typically good at only one thing, using the rest of their few skill points on cross-class social skills. They will fail miserably when dealing with the upper class, but they can still have an edge over their less intelligent or powerful fellows. A few become eccentric geniuses in some craft or profession. The best cook in the county IS likely to be a commoner, but even if she is also the best inkeeper and tavernowner, her establishment will be a dive unless she has a "front-man" with the right skills. That doesn't mean that upperclass folks "in the know" won't patronize the establishement, even if it is on the waterfront, and of course foreigners who don't know any better will love it.
Experts choose the 5 social skills as 5 of their "class" skills and usually keep most of them pinned for their level. Their remaining skills are used on their profession. All Knowledge experts that are not mages, all social professions such as merchant, lawyer, beaurocrat, etc are filled by experts. The one category that Experts do not generally fill is "Fixer" for heroes, a Hero mouthpiece is normally a Rogue or Aristocrat, as no one takes seriously anyone representing heroes who does not have combat training. Halfling society has an unusually large number of experts...half the "warrior" slots, and about 10% of the of the Commoner slots are instead Experts. This reflects the organization of of halfling society and the access to education that even relatively lower class people get. Halflings are the only race with any real libraries and univerisities, which means even if you can't find a living expert in some bit of lore, there may well be a book on it available.
DmG adepts are not in this world. Halfling Adepts are healers and lay priests, who have a very restricted spell list, one domain, no armor proficiencies and no turn/rebuke abilities. As Halflings are very organized and care about the health of their people, so there are three times the usual number of Adepts (1.5% instead of .5%) this number taken out of the Commoner pool. Inbetween (Druidic) adepts are very rare, except on the frontiers.
Warriors are a form of Commoner whose profession is combat. They're treated exactly as any other commoner is treated, which is to say if they become very dangerous they might be given "eccentric genius" status and if they spend skill credits on cross-class social skills they get slightly more acceptance. Warriors aren't that common....halfling militias are ordinary people hiding and harassing as skirmishers while the Heros do the real fighting. There is no concept of a Halfling army, but Halflings CAN mobilize a startling number of heroes and aristocrats and warriors very quickly if they need to to crush a specific threat, and the rest of their very large population makes an excellent support, spy and scouting network. Halflings are the only race other than Dwarves that routinely uses heavy armor on Heroes, Warriors and Aristocrats and Clerics who have heavy armor training. Long range mobility in armor is handled with strings of riding mounts. Combat is considered a static affair for true warriors, the fluid/movement oriented combat is more for skirmishers, commoners and rogues who maneuver the hitters to the enemy.
Aristocrats are experts whose profession is combat. These people might serve as a mentor for a hero team, and also serve as officers when larger scale actions are needed. It is important to understand though that an Aristocrat rarely sees combat in his lifetime. Rather it is his job to send OTHERS into battle and to train/organize the teams into fighting trim. His combat training is intended to give him perspective, and to keep him alive in the rare situation where fighting reaches the back ranks. Most aristocrats have a Mighty Hero or two in their family tree, and it is not at all uncommon for them to be related to active heroes.